HUMAN ARCHITECTURE: JOURNAL OF THE SOCIOLOGY OF SELF-KNOWLEDGE
A Publication of OKCIR: The Omar Khayyam Center for Integrative Research in Utopia, Mysticism, and Science (Utopystics)
HUMAN
ARCHITECTURE
ISSN: 1540-5699. © Copyright by Ahead Publishing House (imprint: Okcir Press). All Rights Reserved.
Journal of the Sociology of Self-
Mindfulness, Compassion, and the Police in America
An Essay of Hope
Michael J. DeValve & Cary D. Adkinson
Fayetteville State University
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
mdevalve@uncfsu.edu • cadkinso@uncfsu.edu
Abstract: The contemporary practice of justice in America most often causes more harm than
healing. This essay applies core teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh to American policing theory in
order to produce a more effective and compassionate policing model. Caveats and suggestions
for implementation are provided.
Justice that love gives is a surrender;
justice that law gives is a punishment.
—Mohandas Gandhi
INTRODUCTION
“Fifty shots is murder. I don’t care what
you say” (Feyerick, 2008) was clearly audible over the din as supporters of the defendants and the victim filed out of the
Queens, New York, courtroom. Three police officers of the New York Police Department had just been found not guilty of
manslaughter, assault, and reckless endangerment in the shooting death of Sean Bell
in late November, 2006. The Reverend Al
Sharpton described the verdict as “aborted
justice” (Feyerick, 2008), yet the judge presiding over the bench trial acquitted the
three officers largely based on the combative demeanor and lack of credibility of the
Michael DeValve, Ph.D., is assistant professor of criminal justice in the Department of Criminal
Justice at Fayetteville State University. His publications and current research are in the area of
justice organizations, particularly regarding the cultivation of compassion, organizational
change, diversity, and organizational learning. His publications can be found in The Prison
Journal and Police Quarterly, among others. Michael earned his M.A. (1998) and Ph.D. (2004) in
Criminal Justice at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas. He lives with his best
friend and colleague Dr. Beth DeValve and their inexpressibly wonderful daughter Kinsela.
Cary Adkinson earned a B.A. in psychology from Southern Methodist University in Dallas,
Texas, his Master’s degree at the University of Texas at Arlington, and his Ph.D. at Sam Houston
State University in 2005. Cary now serves as an assistant professor of criminal justice in the
Department of Criminal Justice at Fayetteville State University. He is currently developing
Insight Criminology, a proposal for the study of crime and justice that integrates the latest discoveries of the natural sciences with social science to offer concrete suggestions for how best to
study crime and encourage the personal and professional growth of criminal justice students,
faculty, and practitioners. Correspondence regarding this paper should be directed to Michael J.
DeValve, 308 Lauretta Taylor Building, Department of Criminal Justice, Fayetteville State University, 1200 Murchison Road, Fayetteville, NC 28311; (910) 672-2191.
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prosecution’s witnesses. It seems clear that
the judge, like the officers in the incident itself, followed established and tried procedure; the officers acted according to policy
given their perceptions of imminent risk,
and the judge weighed evidence, including
the credibility of the witnesses and officers,
and concluded that the evidence offered
did not meet the established criteria of “beyond a reasonable doubt.”
It is tempting for many who regard
these events at some remove to chalk it all
up to an object lesson to pick your friends,
or your haunts, wisely, or at least as a case
of extraordinarily bad luck. For those closer
to the victims, of course, with the closer
vantage comes a greater appreciation of the
depth of injury suffered by Sean’s family.
Still others will regard the officers themselves as victims; it is certain the officers
shall relive that night many times before
they shuffle off their own mortal coils.
Sadly, though, none of these perspectives—
that of the officers, of Bell’s fiancé, that of
the judge, or even one that comes from a
distanced, safe detachment—offers insight
into the deeper meaning of the events, or
how events such as these can be minimized
in the future.
The “groom’s shooting” as it has come
to be called offers a powerful illustration of
the social condition this essay seeks to address. The institution of the police in the
United States has undergone some remarkable changes in the past century. But for all
the progress, the police in America have remained largely as they began with regard
to mindfulness and compassion, and indeed it is distinctly possible that any movement has been retrograde. It is the purpose
of this essay first to argue for the concept of
organizational compassion and organizational mindfulness. Second, the authors
shall discuss the necessity of mindfulness
in the area of policing, providing some caveats for implementation. Finally, the authors will suggest a few starting points for
beginning the process of catalyzing organi-
zational mindfulness and organizational
compassion in American police agencies.
Ultimately, the authors invite a new paradigm in policing, one predicated upon interbeing, true power, compassion and
mindfulness. Although the new paradigm
is likely a way off, it may not be so far as
one might think.
ORGANIZATIONAL MINDFULNESS
AND ORGANIZATIONAL
COMPASSION
The Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh has argued in many of his works that the surest
way to cultivate compassion is for each individual to be compassion themselves (e.g.,
Nhat Hanh, 2005a) through a recognition of
fundamental interexistence between subject and object. Applied to an organizational context, then, to make a
compassionate organization, each member
must become what the organization seeks
to become; in this sense the whole existing
within each individual. Once members of
the organization (in this case a police department) deepen their practices sufficiently to exude compassion, being
individually the thing sought organizationally, the police department will then deal
with its constituencies in any boundary—
spanning interaction in a compassionate
manner.
The authors embrace this perspective.
Indeed, support for this model comes from
the work of deVries and Miller (1984), although they argue that when significant individuals or a significant number of
individuals exhibit particular psychoses or
neuroses, that condition will characterize
the boundary-spanning interactions with
organizational constituencies. But if it is
possible to have a neurotic organization
(deVries and Miller, 1984) it is certainly possible to have a compassionate, mindful organization.
A practical concern remains, however.
HUMAN ARCHITECTURE: JOURNAL OF THE SOCIOLOGY OF SELF-KNOWLEDGE, VI, 3, SUMMER 2008
MINDFULNESS, COMPASSION, AND THE POLICE IN AMERICA
Given the nature of the American police
force, in terms not only of educational
preparation, intellectual flexibility, diversity of perspective or experience, but also of
the cultural emphasis on adherence to
rules, the faith in the Weberian hierarchical
structure and rank system and transactional leadership, not to mention centuries
of organizational inertia, the likelihood of
making manifest to even a significant plurality of officers the central role mindfulness should have in the police organization
is small. Some additional technology likely
will be needed in the “compassionization”
(see Freire, 2000) of the police in America.
In line with the principles of organizational learning (e.g., Argyris and Schon,
1974; Senge, 1990), organizational culture is
both result and creator of knowledge. To
some degree, organizational culture may
have to lead the way for some to come
round to the idea of valuing (and practicing) mindfulness and compassion in a profession that has operated under a paradigm
of conflict and otherness. This means enlisting key individuals as advocates; the individuals would be selected possibly because
of their openness to change, or because of
their position, to advocate for a more carefully-constructed effort to cultivate mindful practice among line staff and
supervisors, and especially among recruits.
In short, given where American policing finds itself at the beginning of the 21st
century, it may be easier to rely on key individuals to change organizational culture,
and for that culture then to demonstrate the
value of mindfulness for serving police officers.
PROBLEM-ORIENTED POLICING AND
THE ENGAGED BUDDHISM OF
THICH NHAT HANH
One of the most influential theories in
the literature on policing provides entrée
for some of the key ideas that may make
101
room for organizational compassion. Problem-oriented policing (e.g., Bichler &
Gaines, 2005; Eck & Spelman, 1987; Goldstein, 1979; 1990; Skogan & Frydl, 2004)
deals with the idea of serving the ends of
the policing role, through an identification
of crime-based problems confronting
served communities. Problem-oriented policing represents perhaps the most significant reorientation of management attention
since the professionalism movement early
in the 20th century, but not merely because
of its current influence.
Defined narrowly, problem-oriented
policing, conducted by officers in their
daily work (e.g., Eck and Spelman, 1987),
involves officers attempting to address patterns of recurrent, harmful, perhaps criminogenic events that concern members of
the community (Skogan & Frydl, 2004).
“Problems” are operationalized as collections of related events that are inimical to
community interest or are seen as noxious
by community members (Eck, 2003). In actuality, though Goldstein’s works called for
(and catalyzed) a broadening of perspectives for the job tasks of the police in order
to more effectively grapple with crime, the
broadening has not been sufficient to address the social problems that cause crime
(e.g., Bichler & Gaines, 2005). The related
nature of events that collectively outline
“problems” for purposes of problem-oriented policing imply common etiology
(Eck, 2003), but a systematic examination of
those causes is largely incomplete. Further,
many of the problems examined in traditional problem-oriented policing research
are more accurately viewed as symptoms,
and the current problem-orientation better
called a symptom-orientation.
Reading “problem” rather more
broadly, though, just to begin with the police could identify some of the pervasive social problems in communities, like
economic inequality, inadequate infrastructure, and substandard education. In doing
so, they might have the opportunity to be-
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MICHAEL J. DEVALVE & CARY D. ADKINSON
come the primary force behind the creation
of a more economically and socially just society. Required here would be (inter alia) a
redefinition of “problem” in problem-oriented policing to include economic inequality, mental illness, individual suffering,
and substandard education. Additionally,
of course, the police would have to move
away from their traditional order-maintenance worldview, and re-empower themselves to act in different (e.g., policy)
spheres as well as in areas of public safety.
Indeed, such a liberal reading of the
idea of problem-oriented policing is not unprecedented; it has support in the mission
statement of at least one mid-sized police
department that asserts it “will work assertively with the community to address the
underlying conditions that lead to crime
and disorder” (Fayetteville Police Department, 2006)—truly a tall order for a traditionally-equipped police department.
Additionally, such a reading of the term is
fully consonant with the idea of community justice. If the underlying conditions of
crime are appropriate targets of police action, then it is reasonable to argue that the
police should act to reduce suffering from
social and economic inequality, mindless
action and delusion. How better to address
delusion and suffering than through mindful action and speech, and deep listening?
Finally, such a reading is virtually compelled by the reformulation of the Four Noble Truths, offered by Thich Nhat Hanh.
Nhat Hahn presents the ideological foundation of Buddhism in very simple terms:
there is ill-being; there is a path to ill-being;
there is well-being; there is a path to wellbeing (specifically the Noble Eightfold
Path). Nhat Hanh teaches that ill-being is
essential for well-being in that one must
look deeply, fearlessly, and with love into
the causes of ill-being in order to discover
the path away from ill-being (personal
communication, 2008). Nhat Hanh (personal communication, 2008) teaches that insight into suffering is the result of mindful
concentration, and compassion is the inevitable outcome of the resulting insight. Often police officers seem to be in a near-ideal
position from which to view community
problems (suffering), but it seems that the
current approach to problem-oriented policing falls far short of its potential (Bichler
& Gaines, 2005). Individual officers’ practice of mindful contemplation of community problems might well offer a reframing
of the current ailing approach to problemoriented policing sufficient to help it fulfill
its promise.
CAVEATS
It would not be irresponsible to say that
in the eyes of some, the institution of the
police in the United States continues to suffer from a conflict of legitimacy (e.g., Engel,
2005; Roberts, 2007). In particular, the history of the relationship between the African-American community and the police
has been antagonistic at best (e.g., Barlow
and Barlow, 2000). Interestingly, in response to problems faced by police departments, a common response is the creation
of specialized teams (e.g., Skogan & Frydl,
2004). Programmatic efforts to address the
tense (and sometimes explosive) relationship between African-Americans and the
police have often employed this task-force
approach, often at the cost of meaningful
successes. This division of labor likely
would be employed in a department’s first
foray into conscious efforts at the cultivation of mindfulness, virtually guaranteeing
at best modest gains. Thus the first caveat is
that traditional structural approaches to the
inclusion of mindfulness efforts in policing
should be studiously avoided.
Silvestri (2007), in an examination of
the leadership styles of female police executives, found that although transformational leadership styles are likely to offer
great benefit to police agencies, and that female police leaders were using these trans-
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MINDFULNESS, COMPASSION, AND THE POLICE IN AMERICA
formational approaches to leadership, the
rest of the organizations examined showed
little movement toward a more transformational management default. The second caveat, then, is that parallel technologies, like
transformational leadership, should be cultivated along with efforts to “compassionize” a police organization. Thus, “unfreezing” efforts might best be undertaken organization-wide, on several fronts at the same
time.
CONCLUSION
Sean Bell’s death is a staggering tragedy, not only due to the loss of a son, fiancé,
and friend, but because of the untold pain
that made it possible, one that couches social reaction to the event. In a very narrow,
policy sense, the police were acting within
the scope of their authority when they shot
fifty rounds at Sean and his friends, and the
recent decision in that Queens courtroom
on April 25, 2008, was well within the
bounds of legal propriety. Thus, our problem: in a compassion-optimized model of
justice legitimate action would seek to be
ameliorative, and pay homage to minimizing pain; instead, the American justice system functions within an adversarial paradigm, and pays far more homage to punitive outcomes than to nurturing ones.
What is needed is nothing short of a
paradigm shift in the role of the police (and
indeed the rest of the justice system in
America) toward a more practically compassionate and mindful worldview. Perhaps the place to start such a revolution is
with the police. In particular, in the current
organizational structure of most mid-tolarge police departments, sergeants (linelevel supervisors) have an extraordinary
amount of influence over the practice of policing in a given context. For a program that
cultivates compassion and mindfulness to
be successful within a police organization,
sergeants (at least a majority of them, or at
103
the very least some of the more prominent
ones) need to be “on board.”
A second recommendation is to frame
any initial efforts to cultivate compassion
and mindfulness as something other than
Buddhist, or even as compassionate. In part
because of the limited intellectual and spiritual variety of experience of many Americans, things that are different are likely to
be perceived as threatening or un-Christian. It might be helpful, therefore, to use a
more familiar, secular approach to legitimize mindfulness training to the sometimes cynical eye of police culture.
Goleman (1998) applies modern neuroscience to illustrate the practical relevance
of “emotional intelligence” training in law
enforcement. In summarizing the applicability of such studies to police training, Goleman concludes, “[c]ompetence studies in
law enforcement organizations find outstanding officers use the least force necessary, approach volatile people calmly and
with a professional demeanor, and are
adept at de-escalation” (pp. 87-88). Helping
officers and administrators understand the
personal benefits of mindfulness training
could also be a gateway for acceptance. Efforts to introduce police officers to meditation, for example, might be couched in
terms of a “stress management” program in
order to increase acceptability.
Of course it cannot be said with confidence that, had the New York Police Department been engaged in an ongoing
effort to “compassionize” sworn staff that
Sean Bell would not be dead. But it can be
said if the justice system as a whole had
been predicated upon compassion, and had
consistently demonstrated mindful action
and deep listening, as recommended by
Nhat Hanh (2005b), the racial tension that
resulted from Sean’s death, inter alia, would
not make nearly as much sense. Instead, the
police department would be able to rely
upon its predicate relationship of trust, a
reservoir of goodwill, to help salve the
wounds of the community. As things are,
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MICHAEL J. DEVALVE & CARY D. ADKINSON
lawful police action and legitimate judicial
decision-making are followed by multiplied grief and suffering. It is time, then, for
the institution of the police to enter the
stream.
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